The Press: Trial by Transcript

Washington reporters knew that the MacArthur story was shaping up as the greatest controversy on Capitol Hill since the debates on slavery. But all advance signs indicated that it would also be a historic case of journalistic frustration; the committee had decided to bar press and public from the hearings. The testimony would be fed out to the press through a system of stenographers, censors and press aides, and reporters feared that this cumbersome apparatus would delay the news for hours, if not shut much of it off.

As the hearings began, nail-biting wire-service...

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